


Love is a maze (but damn you is amaze)

by ElizabethMikaelson



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, F/F, fangs be that fan, slowburn, slowburn good tho, so basically they just in high school, so soft, soft, toni is soft and gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 12:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16387370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethMikaelson/pseuds/ElizabethMikaelson
Summary: Falling in love with Cheryl Blossom was something which didn't happen one day. It happened slowly and only now you can see that you were in love with her since the beginning.Also known as: Toni loves Cheryl and yet they dance around those feelings until they don't.





	Love is a maze (but damn you is amaze)

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote nth all these months and now boom from 2k i hoped to write to 6k. I dont even know how i wrote this but im glad i did it. hope u all like this slowburn softness with lots of fluff

You, in all your honest to god honesty, know one thing clear as the day, believe on it like you believe on the stars which light up the night sky and like your believe on the sun which makes Cheryl’s skin glow and make her seem even more angelic that she already is.

  
  
  


You know a lot of things but the thing you know the most is that spending all of your days with Cheryl Blossom, with her red painted smile and shining brown eyes and soft hands and even softer heart is the closest thing anyone can feel to heaven. It’s your own heaven and you are so goddamn glad that you didn’t break when Cheryl told you to go away, so glad that you saw behind the mask of a HBIC and saw what an amazing person she really was. 

  
  


So when it’s the last day of school, you find yourself waiting for Cheryl at her locker, hands gripping your books, same books you would push away so you could let Cheryl sit on the table to talk with you. And the grip you have on them when you see Cheryl walking towards you is a grip similar to the one Cheryl has on your heart. Strong and firm and yet soft and gentle.

  
  
  


“Toni, always a pleasure to see your face in this school,” says Cheryl, her smile infectious (or maybe not, maybe it’s just a new reflex you have acquired that you smile every time you see her) and you lean against the locker next to hers, Cheryl opening hers and taking the books needed for her last hour.

  
  
  


“Same can go for me Bombshell,” you reply, using a nickname you know it always makes her smile. And there she smiles, genuine and small and a smile which makes you grin like a fool (and that you are) so you settle to lean your back on the locker and Cheryl closes hers and leans there, her eyes never leaving yours.

  
  
  


“Up for some Pop’s tonight?” you ask and she nods her head, both of you starting to walk towards her class, enjoying how others look at you two, the powerhouses of the school, the two queens of the Southside and Northside.

  
  
  


“Of course, I’m always up for some Pop’s. Why don’t you bring some when you come over?” She doesn’t ask if you would want to come over and even if her eyes are hopeful you know that deep in her heart she knows you would go anywhere for her. That she could ask you to run all around Riverdale and that you would only ask when you were supposed to meet her after.

  
  
  


Cheryl Blossom holds a power over you which logically should scare you (and sometimes it really does), but as she leans down to give you a cheek kiss and enters her class, leaving you standing on the middle of the hallway, you realize just as late as you are for your class that with Cheryl it never was and you are sure will never be.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Summer starts and so do your 12 hour shifts at the White Wyrm. You find yourself serving drinks to anyone who comes there and having fun with your boys and spending all your free time with no customers texting Cheryl, smiling as you tell her about the people who come there and how she has a comment about each.

  
  
  


(You tell her about a drunk man who was being a little too flirty and how FP dragged him outside and Fangs gives you a smirk when he finds you laughing at Cheryl’s message which went along the lines of FP doing a good job in dragging him out the same way life had done.)

  
  
  


It’s around 11:30 pm, and you see how the bar is getting emptier, so you sit on the small stool under the bar, and a curse nearly comes out of your mouth when you hear the door opening, your happiness of relaxing being ruined, but the clicking of heels on the floor makes you get up fast and lose your footing and the last thing you see before you fall face first in the floor is Cheryl with a confused look on her face.

  
  
  


“And here I thought you were a scary, stealthy gang member,” says Cheryl and you see her smirking at you, leaning down to help you get up. Her hand is still wrapped around your waist and her other on your wrist as Fangs walks and sits on the bar, his smirk reminding you of that one time he made her and Sweet Pea steal Jughead’s clothes while he was taking a shower. A smirk which only told trouble with a big T.

  
  
  


“So, guess Tiny fell for our local Red,” remarks Fangs, and you blush red, which you hide by throwing your towel at him, which he catches easily with a laugh spilling from his lips. Cheryl only rolls her eyes at him and helps you sit down, her hold on you so gentle you think of faking some pain only so she can hold you more like that.

  
  
  


“Get me some ice and put your brain in uses other than terrible puns,” says Cheryl and you smirk as Fangs pouts defeated and jumps over the counter to walk at the fridge and then takes a ice bag, which he hands to Cheryl.

  
  
  


She places the bag gently on your head, and you wince from the coldness, but when her hand takes its place and rubs your head gently, you feel your body tingle and before you know it, you are leaning your head on her stomach. Cheryl freezes for a moment, before her arm is on your shoulders, and her hand continues caressing your head, her touch soft and so comforting for you.

  
  
  


“Such young love that it makes my heart skip beats.” You both only roll your eyes at him and he smiles at both of you before going at the back, your bag on his hand which he hands to Cheryl. You get up and give him a hug and then both you and Cheryl walk outside of the bar. Not many turn their heads, and you think how unbelievable it would be for past you if someone told you that a Blossom would enter the White Wyrm and leave with a Serpent and no one would blink an eye at that.

  
  
  


You grab your bag from her hand and then your hand finds hers almost immediately, only letting go to enter Cheryl’s car. Inside is warm and you sigh happily as you lean back and close your eyes, Cheryl starting the car and driving you both towards your trailer. You were embarrassed a little to show her your trailer at first, knowing she had lived her entire life on mansions, but when you saw her smile and how relaxed she was as she moved around the small space, all embarassment was gone.

  
  
  


(Once, you were sick with a bad cold and you didn’t even have to tell Cheryl to come over for her to appear at your door to make some food and take care of you. She only told you to sit on the couch and after placing a cold towel on your forehead and a blanket on top of you she moved to the kitchen.

  
  


It could have been the fact you were super tired, but when you saw Cheryl moving around the kitchen with swift moves, like she had lived there her entire life, you were sure that your heart felt warmer somehow.

  
  
  


You fell asleep and woke up with her by your side, the redhead asleep sitting on the couch opposite of yours. You thought that maybe that’s what falling in love felt like.)

  
  
  


When you arrive, you move towards your room to change and Cheryl walks in after you, freezing when she sees your back and you curse mentally. You didn’t tell her you had a fight with some Ghoulies yesterday, knowing how worried she would get and how she wouldn’t hesitate to make Sweetpea take your shift so she could take care of you here at home.

  
  
  


“Toni… What happened?” whispers Cheryl, her touch so soft on your back that you hear her small, surprised gasp when you lean on her touch, your head falling on her shoulder, the exhaustion only registering now.

  
  
  


All you wanna do now is just go sleep and rest, but you also have a worried Cheryl Blossom on your hands so you know that first you need to be taken care of.

  
  
  


“Small fight with Ghoulies. Don’t worry Cheryl,” you murmur but you still feel her tense, and you sigh as she breaks your embrace and sits you down on the bed, going to the bathroom you suppose to only return with bandages.

  
  
  


Her touch is feather like as she patches you up, and you wince sometimes as she treats your cuts with some disinfectant, but in the end she leaves a small kiss on top of the bandages and you are sure that you are healed completely only by that.

  
  
  


“Stay.” Your small, tired voice as you hold her wrist weakly makes her smile softly at you and nod her head. You close your eyes and hear as she moves to your closet and after some minutes, you open your eyes and you see Cheryl helping you under the blanket, wearing a black shirt you used to wear and shorts, slipping behind you when you find a comfortable position to lay on.

  
  
  


Her arms wrap around you from behind and you wish to be in that position for all of your life, her heart beating at the same time as yours and both of you nearly merging into one.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


When you wake up, you see that she is sitting and on her phone, eyes unfocused but which focus on you as soon as you get the blanket off your head. You move your head sleepily on her lap and long fingers caress your head and run through your hair.

  
  
  


“Morning sleepy,” says Cheryl, and you can detect the smile on her lips by how soft her voice is, which makes you look up at her, and you feel yourself falling deeper and faster than you already are by how gentle and happy and relaxed she looks with you, here, now. Like here, with your grey blankets and warm sunlight coming from the dirty windows of your trailer, and with you and with your head on her lap is exactly where she wants to be.

  
  
  


You love that you know that’s true. That only here, where the only two of you can be without anyone else, where everything is laid bare for the other to see, where there are no reputations to uphold and no trouble to find you, is the only place where the two of you would love to be in.

  
  
  


The moment seems to drown you, the countless feelings and the feeling with countless meanings, so you get up and sit beside her, lean your head on her shoulder, and interlock her hand with yours and her thumb caresses your palm gently.

  
  
  


And as your lifelines meet and your eyes too, you realize that you might not know how saying those three words sounds, but you know that if they were a moment, it would probably be this one.

  
  
  


(When Cheryl turns her head and kisses the top of your head, and then lays a soft kiss close to your lips, and you feel the cherry chapstick she wears for bed, you also know that if _I love you_ had a taste it would probably taste like Cheryl.)

 

  
  
  


* * *

 

There is a legend or rather story, which has gone around Riverdale for some decades, that if someone you like or love romantically has something stuck on a tree on the forest surrounding the Sweetwater river, and you managed to catch it, then the two of you were destined to be together.

  
  
  


You remembered that tale days ago when you and Cheryl were talking about your families and you tell her with a sad smile of how your dad caught your mom’s scarf back when they had just gotten in the Serpents. Cheryl takes your hands in hers when you tell her how they both died in a mission gone wrong for the Serpents and how FP took you in after they died.

  
  
  


Cheryl asks you about your memories of them and you smile softly at how she tries to cheer you up, so you tell her about them and how the three of you used to be such a close family and how your father would dance with your mom in the middle of the kitchen and you used to laugh and dance with them.

  
  
  


You see how she smiles at your words but then she gets up and you see confused as she moves towards where her phone is charging, eyes focused on scrolling through her phone.

  
  
  


“What are you doing?” you ask curiously and you frown as soft jazz music starts playing and Cheryl skips towards you, her smile wide yet gentle and you laugh as she lifts you up by taking your hands in hers.

  
  
  


“Dancing. If your parents used to do that here and you always danced with them,” your eyes widen and you see as a small blush appears on her pale cheeks, “I thought that if you want I’ll help you feel that happiness again as much as I can and help you keep the memory alive by creating a new positive one.”

  
  
  


Your eyes water and you blink to not let the tears fall, because goddamn you won’t cry because Cheryl Blossom is the person with the biggest heart ever and she wants you happy-

  
  
  


But when she gets her hands behind your back and you move your arms around her neck and you are so close you can see the glint in her eyes and feel her cool breath over your face and how warm her body is against yours, you feel a tear rolling down your cheek and you nuzzle your head on her neck. Her arms immediately tighten their hold on you, and you feel Cheryl’s cheek on top of your head, both of you just swaying to the music.

  
  
  


“Thank you Cheryl,” you murmur against her neck and you feel her lips on your forehead, just resting there and you close your eyes, enjoying how opening up to Cheryl feels like opening up to yourself.

  
  
  


“It’s always a pleasure for you ma cherie,” replies Cheryl, and you don’t reply, just let your tears fall.

  
  
  


Some for sadness over your loss which still hurts you, no matter how you don’t show it, and some of happiness because you finally realised that Cheryl was never just a friend. She was so much more. She was your best friend, your soulmate and now the only person you could imagine yourself with.

  
  
  


(Maybe the only person you always imagined yourself with.)

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

You decide to take Cheryl to Sweetwater River for a picnic when you see it’s a cool day for a Riverdale summer day. Your plan is to stay there till late at night so you could stargaze, so you give Fangs your shift and then get your bike and drive to pick Cheryl up.

  
  
  


She smiles as she gets behind you, putting her red helmet on, (of course she would buy a red helmet for herself) and you start the bike and drive towards Sweetwater river. When you arrive, you see surprised how you missed the archery bag on her back, but you grin and start walking beside her towards the river, the bag for the picnic hanging on your shoulder.

  
  
  


“Are you gonna kill anyone or anything?” you ask and you see the corners of her lips tugging into a smirk, Cheryl throwing you a mischievous look.

  
  
  


“Varies on what I find, I find myself in a mood for some reptiles today,” she says and your eyes widen in fake fear, which only make Cheryl roll her eyes and take your hand, both of you finding the nearest spot clear enough to settle down.

  
  
  


A spot which is found easily and you place the blanket on the ground before settling down yourself, Cheryl smiling and sitting beside you. Silence takes over you two and it’s a comfortable one, you laying down on your stomach and Cheryl sitting cross legged and drawing on her notebook, her eyes focused on the paper and yours closed, enjoying the calmness and the sun on your chocolate colored skin.

  
  
  


“Toni, look, a bird. Let me try if I can catch it with an arrow,” says Cheryl as she grabs her bow and arrow and you get up with her, your eyes stuck on the way her arm muscles tense and how hot concentration looks on her.

  
  
  


Silence falls again and its cut by the release of the arrow, which pierces the bird easily, and you cheer, proud of Cheryl while she grins victoriously.

  
  
  


“Let me go and grab it,” you say and she nods her head, but then your words seem to register on her mind and you hear her laugh as you grab on the first branch and lift yourself up, your grin matching Cheryl’s.

  
  
  


“Be careful or you’ll fall again for me!” calls Cheryl and you only laugh louder, your eyes finding strong looking branches so you can climb to where the arrow is stuck on the tree. You climb slowly and you feel Cheryl’s gaze on you, knowing that she is worried that you’ll fall. But she doesn’t know you have been climbing trees since you were a kid and you would race with Sweet Pea about who climbed the fastest, Fangs cheering both of you from the ground.

  
  
  


You yell excited as you reach the arrow and pull it off, waving it for Cheryl to see, who only grins and ushers you down, moving down the tree to help you get down when you reached somewhere where she could help you.

  
  
  


“Guess you achieved to get my arrow back Topaz,” says Cheryl with a smirk which you know has a double meaning but you can’t seem to get now, your hair sticking to your forehead and grin too big and too focused on Cheryl to grasp the meaning of her words.

  
  
  


“I would always catch anything of yours Cher, no matter where or what you throw.”

  
  
  


Only after you leave Cheryl home, her lips kissing your cheek gently and leaving you a blushing mess until you arrive home and enter your trailer and remember how you and Cheryl danced there, only then you remember the tale you told her back then there and her words register on your mind.

  
  
  


Your heart doesn’t calm down, but it sure as hell does belong even more to Cheryl more than it already did.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


One day, when both you and Cheryl are at Pop’s, her quiet laugh making you smile as you filled your mouth with fries, travelling comes up and you see how her gaze becomes distant, the same way they would always become when Cheryl got too lost on her thoughts and mind.

  
  
  


“I always wanted to go somewhere along the Coast Line. California maybe, or Oregon. Every time me and Jason used to imagine adventures we would do in the future we used to think about going there with our future loves,” she confesses softly, and you catch her eyes with a small smile, your hand catching hers on her lap.

  
  
  


“Maybe we can travel somewhere next week. It is summer after all bombshell so why not have a good adventure?” you ask with a smirk and as her eyes light up, you think that you would go walking all the way to the end of the world only so you could see that smile.

  
  
  


When she leans her head on your shoulder and leaves a gentle kiss underneath your ear, you think that maybe love isn’t always big gestures and romance but soft promises under the neon lights of Pop’s.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


You ask FP to let you off work for some days, and when Cheryl comes to the Wyrm and you tell him your secret plan, the old Serpent grins at you and agrees, telling you he would give you some help with the directions, having taken that road some time ago by himself.

  
  
  


Jughead helps you get all the things ready, filling the bags with the necessary clothes and food and also getting your helmets and bike ready. He smiles as you explain him your plans and he teases you about how soft Cheryl has made you and you only reply with a comment about him and Betty, which silences his teasing immediately.

  
  
  


Friday comes with days passing as fast as summer days pass, like the sand on the hourglass of life falls faster somehow, and you find herself standing before Thornhill, bags secured with both of your and Cheryl’s clothes and now only waiting for Cheryl, who gets out of the house smiling and walking towards you slowly.

  
  
  


“Toni, my favorite Southside girl,” she says as she stands before you, hands on the pockets of her baseball jacket (which is- was yours) and you lean back on the bike, smirk on your face as you raise an eyebrow at her.

  
  
  


“Southside girl? Do you have a favorite Northside girl who takes you on surprise trips which I don’t know of?” you tease and she rolls her eyes at you, her hands moving to your shoulders, caressing your leather jacket and her body leans against yours involuntarily, your eyes meeting hers and you both spend a moment in silence, just enjoying the closeness and moment.

  
  
  


“Maybe,” she says and you raise your eyebrow again, which makes her sigh and roll her eyes. “Okay fine there is only you and only cause you are the only noteworthy person in this god forsaken town.”

  
  
  


That makes you grin victoriously and you get on the bike, Cheryl getting behind you and both of you put your helmets on before you start the bike, ready to start the way to where you hope you’ll maybe (hopefully) make Cheryl feel as happy, untroubled and pleased as she makes you feel.

  
  
  


* * *

 

 

You stop every one hour and soon you arrive close to California, where you ask Cheryl to wrap your red scarf around her eyes, which wasn’t put without unnecessary teasing.

  
  
  


(“Tee-Tee, as much as exploring the erotic side of a relationship is something amazing, I don’t think the middle of somewhere is a place we should do that,” says Cheryl with her usual bloody red smirk and you blush red and only shake your head, tying the scarf behind her head.

  
  
  


A thought passes on your mind as you lean close to her ear, enjoying how you see her skin goosebump.

  
  
  


“Maybe I’m into that babe, who would know?”

  
  
  


You also enjoy how when she breathes out it’s shaky and how her arms around you seem to hold you tighter and closer. Not that you were complaining or anything.)

  
  
  


You sigh happily as you drive through the Santa Monica streets, your bike speeding between the cars just so you can arrive at the pier in time to see what you were dying to see with Cheryl for the first time alone and somewhere new where you two could have a special memory only you two would know.

  
  
  


It’s around 6 pm when you park your bike and Cheryl takes off her helmet as soon as you stop, moving her head like she was trying to see something to know where they were, and all you do is laugh before you help her off the bike and take her hand.

  
  
  


“When are you gonna take this thing off so I enjoy the view we traveled all the way here for Toni?”  
  
  


 

You grin victoriously and you make her lean her body against the railing, your own arms wrapped around her waist from behind and your head leaning against her shoulder.

  
  
  


Cheryl moves impatiently on your arms so you reach a hand on her head and untie the scarf, her hands taking it off as soon as your hand comes off her head. You feel her gasp and you move beside her, your smile wide (you probably look like you are looking at one of the world’s wonders) and Cheryl only looks around, then she turns at you and you see how tears fall freely on her cheeks.

  
  
  


“Did you take him to the pier in Santa Monica,” you sing softly and you start taking your jacket off, her confused face making you smile widely as you place it on her shoulders, leaving your hands on her shoulders.

  
  
  


“Forget to bring a jacket, wrap in her cause you wanted to.” She laughs at that, a teary, honest and genuine laugh which only comes from the fact that yeah, Hayley was right at that and you too for singing that exact part.

  
  
  


“I’m just curious,” your voice gets softer by that and you see her eyes widen, from what,  you don’t know. “Is it serious?”

  
  
  


There is a quote which comes on your mind as you look into deep, teary brown eyes. It was a Japanese one if you remember correctly, _koi no yokan_. It was about love at second sight, a love which may look like it happens in the second you see that special someone, but it doesn’t. It’s that moment when you see someone and know that one day, after months of spending time together and drinking milkshakes and sharing laughs, you know you’ll fall in love with them.

  
  
  


And that’s how you feel about Cheryl. You fell in love with her slowly. You fell in love with her after you made her mask fall and saw who the real Cheryl Blossom really was. You fell for her when you shared a milkshake together and you saw her laugh freely for the first time. You fell for Cheryl Blossom every damn time she smiled at you or when she took care of you or when you were her shoulder to lean on.

  
  
  


And then you understood, that maybe that’s what fairy tales and happy ever afters were for. That’s what happened when you saw in front of you the person you knew you were going to spend the rest of your life with, or maybe even the rest of your life loving. Two people who chose each other, day after day, problem after problem, situation after situation. Choice, that’s what it was, choosing to love someone despite everything and choosing to love them more day after day.

  
  
  


The sun just sets behind you as Cheryl leans down, hands on your cheeks and your hands on her shoulders, when you feel her lips against yours and suddenly all the love songs about how kissing someone would make you feel like you had found home felt all too real and true.

  
  
  


And Cheryl always made you feel home, but there with the rays of the sun reflecting on the sea and on you two as you kissed, even if you were miles away from your trailer or her mansion or both of yours lives, you had never felt more at home and complete than at that moment with Cheryl.

  
  


\----

  
  
  


You spend your time after that walking around Santa Monica, returning to the beach when it’s near midnight and both of you had decided to spend the night there. It’s probably because the sea made Cheryl feel free and relaxed, you think, since she told you how the waves crashing on the shore made her feel calm and empty of all negative thoughts.

  
  
  


Both of you hadn’t talked about the kiss after it happened. She was the one to break the kiss before she turned to see the sunset and the view and you could see she needed some time to gather her thoughts, so you just smiled and leaned on her side, Cheryl wrapping an arm around your shoulders and both of you enjoying the view on silence.

  
  
  


Now here you were, once again alone and before a spectacular view, even if that was the last thing on your mind now. Your hands were facing the fire before the both of you, a fire you lit up when Cheryl suggested you spend your night stargazing until you had to start driving to return to Riverdale.

  
  
  


“No one has ever done this much for me only to make me happy,” says Cheryl, her eyes looking forward, and you turn to look at her, straddling the piece of wood you two are sitting at.

  
  
  


“It’s a real shame honestly, you deserve this and much more.” Your reply makes her smile and tear up, before she blinks the tears away and then sighs, fingers drumming on her thigh.

  
  
  


Silence falls upon you two again, a silence which doesn’t scare you but rather gives you time to think, to think about what happened and what will probably happen now. The ball had been shot, now it was only time to wait and see if it would fall on the hole or miss.

  
  
  


“If I told you,” she turns to look at you now, expression vulnerable but confident, “If I told you that I might have developed romantic feelings for you, what would you do?”

  
  
  


You smile then, and move closer, your knee touching her thigh and your hands settling on the wood between your legs, your face close to Cheryl’s and your eyes cling into hers, and you are sure that you don’t even need to talk, since you are sure your eyes are telling her everything. Everything from how you started falling for her since she started giving you cheek kisses and hell, since she first spoke to you.

  
  
  


“I would return those romantic feelings right back,” you reply softly, and the intensity between you two seems like the fire which burns before you, warm and giving light to these old feelings which are finally acknowledged between the two of you.

  
  
  


Only then does Cheryl smile freely, and you see how her shoulders relax and then she moves so she mirrors your position, hands moving to settle on top of yours and making both of you giggle quietly before you breath deeply and raise your head, both of you breathing each other’s air.

  
  
  


You are the one to lean in now, your lips brushing with hers at first before she leans in to kiss you fully, and your hand moves to caress her cheek, and before you know it your wide smiles make you both break the kiss, Cheryl laughing loudly and with her eyes closed, the perfect picture of happiness.

  
  
  


“I love you Cheryl,” you say, and she looks at you surprised. And you can’t even understand why she would be surprised at your confession. Right now, with her red hair being illuminated by the fire and smile far too wide and lips a soft pink and eyes clear and gleaming, you can’t even imagine how someone wouldn’t fall in love and be ready to do anything for Cheryl Blossom.

  
  
  


Her smile gets softer too, and she leans in again and kisses you again, and you are starting to realize that you will get addicted to her kisses if you already haven’t.

  
  
  


“And I love you too Toni Topaz,” she says against your lips and that’s when you agree than nothing can ever sound better and more angelic than that.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


When you return to Riverdale, everything seems the same and yet better than before. Cheryl kisses you hard against your bike before she enters her house and when you two meet up later at Pop’s, she leans down to kiss you softly with happiness shining on her eyes and you hear Fangs and Veronica cheer on the background, both of them sitting on the booths on each side of yours.

  
  
  


The summer passes slow after that, you and Cheryl altering your time between your trailer and Thornhill and Pop’s or Sweetwater river. It’s amazing and it’s calm and it’s all you have ever wanted in your life, some calmness away from the loudness of the Serpents (which you love but sometimes the yelling and fun at the Wyrm just gets to you).

  
  
  


And it’s good honestly. You hold hands and you kiss Cheryl’s hand and make her blush softly and you kiss her in the middle of the forest and in the middle of the town and you have a date night every Saturday and you bring her flowers only so you can see her smile and feel as special as she really is to you. It’s everything and more and you love it.

 

* * *

 

  
  
  


You go to Pop’s one day as usual, her hand holding yours and pulling you to the booth on the corner, Cheryl making you sit there before she goes to order two burgers and milkshakes and fries for the two of you. When she comes back, she sits beside you and your arm immediately wraps around her shoulders, giving her a soft kiss before Cheryl takes out her phone and scrolls through her camera roll (and then she takes a selfie of you two and posts it and also saves it to her special folder, something which makes you feel warm on the inside). 

  
  
  


When Pop brings you your orders, you grin and lean to grab a fry and put half of it on your mouth, furrowing your brows to Cheryl, which makes her laugh at your childishness but nonetheless she leans in and takes the other half on her mouth.

  
  
  


You smile against her lips as she puts a hand behind your neck, keeping you against herself and you think that yes, fries can be amazing but nothing tastes better than Cheryl.

  
  
  


“I can’t believe I love a child,” says Cheryl with fake annoyance and you laugh and lean to kiss her again, something which Cheryl is more than okay with.

  
  
  


And as you both look at each other smiling, you know that you fall more in love with her in moments like this, where she lets her walls down or takes part in your childhood romantic dreams. You just love her more when you see the real Cheryl, the Cheryl you are sure you never will stop choosing and loving.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey Tee-Tee?” she asks you one night, both of you on the terrace of Thornhill, your head on her chest and her arm around your shoulder and waist while yours are trailing up and down her waist and sides, enjoying the small giggles she would release when you would run your hand on a ticklish part of her body.

  
  
  


“Yes babe?” You smile as you raise your head, propping yourself up on your elbow and giving yourself the chance to see Cheryl looking up to you with a gentle smile, her hair slightly messy and yet she looks divine, like she is the reason why the sun shines or why all of your happiness comes because of her smile.

  
  
  


“I love you, that’s all,” she says, the words barely a whisper by how soft she says them, but you are left open mouthed at how full of sincere love they seem, and you are sure it will take a long time (maybe never) for you to not be left this speechless every time Cheryl tells you about her feelings like this.

  
  
  


Only thing you can really do is just lean down and leave a brief, soft kiss against her lips, and Cheryl still has her eyes closed after you break the kiss, but the corners of her mouth tip up slightly which make you smile at how cute she looks.

  
  
  


“And I love you too Cheryl Blossom.”

  
  
  


And honestly, when did you ever not love her? 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> title is from Love Maze, a song by bts and this line is sung by Kim Namjoon who just released his new mixtape so check it out!!! (also pls comment and like this fic if u enjoyed it)


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